Introduction

In this chapter, the author begins with a review of three conversational threads connected to content management: the methodology of single-sourcing content, the shift to content-management-driven writing and design, and the craft tradition and its focus on rhetorical value. Three conversations record the changes wrought by content management systems: single-sourcing methodologies, content management, and the craft tradition. Technical communication as a discipline has not responded to the challenge of teaching content management with the same dedication or urgency with which it has examined teaching the service course, or web design, or document design. Scholars have tried to engage the community, and in doing so have generated an important conversation about content management and related topics that spans almost three decades. Writing practices in technical communication have been drastically changed by a methodology called single sourcing. From the craft perspective, agency is practiced by individuals who cooperate with each other to complete their work.